Into the woods

Well Good Afternoon my loved ones!
What a marvelous week full of wonderful weather, the spirit, and good laughs! I hope all of you have had the same great week as well! :)
Today we got to go to the temple so sorry if this letter lacks details. Short amount of time and because we are in the YSA and have recent converts that are going, WE CAN GO WATCH FACE TO FACE WITH ELDER HOLLAND!!!! I'm SUPER excited. Being a missionary in general is pretty exciting!
Well, where to start.
Tuesday night we had appointments, boom boom BOOM!! It was quite nice. :) First one was with a less active, he's the coolest. He has family struggles and disapproval but he SO wants to come back to church! I WANT HIM TO TOO!!!!!! Lesson filled with the spirit.
Then we went to go see our favorite elder recent convert, Stevenson, John Stevenson. Good man, good man. I love talking about The Book of Mormon with everyone so it was great! Then we taught Eddie, good ol' Eddie. HE WENT TO THE TEMPLE ON THURSDAY!!!!!!
AHHHHHH, it's so awesome.
We did not get to go because he wasn't able to get a family name in time, but that's okay! His faith is being built right now and I'm so impressed and so proud!
It builds my faith!!!
Wednesday was go go go day! But it was also a great day for revelation! And a great day to do service. I haven't done service in FOREVER!!! And so I was so excited a less active woman asked us to weed her yard. I've never been so excited to weed someone's yard! So when I get home, hurry and make me weed! I'LL BE SO EXCITED! Shaking things up, it's always a good thing!
Then we had a cute lunch with a recent convert Jessica. We got her to do missionary work! And she comes out with us a lot, I love her, she's awesome!!!
We then taught Jake. Fun fact: Jake was introduced to the church through The Book of Mormon Musical. He read the script, wanted the real Book of Mormon, so there the sister missionaries went!
And here he is, a member of the church! He just went and saw the musical this past weekend, it's in town, so EVERYONE is going to see it. Good times. Have no fear, the church is still true! :)
And major revelation then happened. We prepared for a zone conference where we were asked to give training for half the mission! No pressure, but Heavenly Father helped us out.
We were asked how we can improve our restoration presentations we give at baptisms.
Fun fact: 80% of nonmembers that attend baptismal services end up becoming members themselves! SUPER powerful experience!
So we used the tools that had been given to us. I wish you all could have been there to feel the spirit, but basically I can sum up the tools we used to present the restoration and then you can picture it:
-pictures of Christ, prophets, Book of Mormon, my family and my companions' family, Joseph Smith and the first vision.
-we created a slideshow with "Come Unto Christ" music for Christ's ministry
-we watched a video that had Elder Holland in it, explaining The Book of Mormon.
-we recited the First Vision and BOOM.
Spirit.
I know that doesn't do a good job of describing everything we did and used, but it wasn't just a normal pamphlet lesson. I was proud of my companion and I. We did it on 10 minutes notice and the spirit was SO strong.
So we prepared that on Wednesday.

[Editor's Note] 
I received an email from the mission president this week (3/25/2016) about this training that I will insert here:
"Your daughter is an outstanding missionary. She and Sister Stewart provided some amazing training at a recent multi-zone conference on teaching at baptismal services--it was incredible. We are so blessed to serve with her."

We also had dinner with the Jenkins, the Grossmont Bishop's family and they had our investigator Vanessa over! So cute! We had breakfast for dinner. THAT IS MY FAVORITE!!
Probably something I miss most. So it was awesome. And we had a super powerful lesson on Christ. All of the kids and the parents bore testimony, even Vanessa. Tears were of course included!
Then we had another great lesson with our investigator Stephanie, she's dating a nonmember and she wants to get baptized a day after her wedding in June. She's been an investigator for a year. So I'm so grateful that she decided to get baptized. She reads The Book of Mormon everyday, has the most awesome prayers and keeps all the commandments! She's already a member.
I love people like her. :)
Thursday we traveled as a mission deep into the woods for zone conference. BEST. DAY. EVER.
We went into the hills of Ramona in a camp called Camp Wildwood.

Sisters with the BEST President!

We had training, which we gave some of it, and then had team building experiences that were related to missionary work. And then my favorite part, a silent hike all the way up to a cross. We had the opportunity to carry a rock that represented our burdens and we got to lay it at the cross, giving it to our Savior.
President Schmitt also gave us bandannas that represented the "ensign to the nation."

Super cool.
Silent hikes are a genius idea, you all should do them. Especially when it's with a group of missionaries. It's the best.
God is real. His creations are beautiful. His existence is evident all around us. It was a great day. It was sort of like Girls Camp, haha, but with Elders so that was weird. :)
But I have to say, one of my favorite team building activities was when we just got up on these logs randomly and we were told we had to order ourselves from oldest to youngest without touching the ground. And if we did, the person who touched the ground would have to start over. I have to say I was impressed with my balance. And one of the funny moments: I just took a leap of faith and JUMPED, aka threw myself at my beloved Sister Carlson and she caught me! She's a gem. We had a good tender moment clinging to each other for dear life like we were on a tightrope 100 feet off the ground when really it was like six inches. Good times all around. :)
I love going into the woods; especially on spiritual journeys. :)

Our Lovely Trio

I was so exhausted that night, but we still came back with three hours of work to do! And we worked!
Friday we went on exchanges with the lovely La Mesa 2nd sisters. And I got to be with sister Vernier again! She's a gem! This is her second transfer in the mission! She's now done with training! She rocks. :)

Fun Transfers

We taught a lot of awesome lessons. One to a YSA less active named Jessie, super cool lesson and set some goals with him towards the Temple. We had a cool power hour in Lakeside. We sent five referrals out to other missionaries! It rocked. :) We also taught a convert trying to go to the temple. She owns a cute little flower shop so it was fun to read The Book of Mormon with her there. :)
We had a ten minute dinner and then we taught my favorite people EVER!!! DOUG AND JULIE!!!! Oh man, I love them a lot. We taught The Plan of Salvation. We were able to bring our Bishop and his wife, it was their date night! (How cute!) Doug of course bore amazing testimony, he amazes me every time, and it was cool to hear Julie bear testimony too. Doug talked about how he's seen a difference in her, how she doesn't fight as much anymore with her sister and how she just glows. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! AND SHE'S GOING TO THE TEMPLE ON SATURDAY AND HOPEFULLY WE CAN GO WITH HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah.
It's the best.
Doug also talked about the summer before Julie was with her family in Arizona who are all members. He talked about how the Uncle she stayed with was a Ward Mission Leader so she was surrounded by Elders constantly. Heavenly Father knew Julie needed sisters; someone who could be gentle with her because she is a very gentle and sweet person. And funny thing--this ward only got Sisters like six months ago. God is good. And I love Julie! :)
We also taught a sweet YSA, Netta. She's coming back to church!!!!!! Ah, I love her so! And she's reading The Book of Mormon with her nonmember boyfriend. She's so cool!!
Saturday, weekly planning because we had no other time to do it that week. But we also had a really cool spiritual lesson with a former investigator. He's Samoan and his name is Salatonu Tusitala. Cool right? He is the humblest sweetest YSA ever. He is so prepared for the gospel. His family is not, and he loves his family too much to go against them. He has a Samoan Book of Mormon so I know he will come. Who knows, maybe our lesson sparked something! But as of now, not yet.
I'm so grateful I got to teach that lesson. I felt really in tune with the spirit. Our investigator Vanessa also fed us dinner. She's the sweetest! And she is so ready for April 3rd!! She's getting baptized! AHHHH. I JUST LOVE HER. We had stake conference that night too and she came! She's so awesome! It was a great session. Elder Craig A. Cardon was there. He gave the talk "The Savior Wants to Forgive" in General Conference a little while ago. (April 2013) Super good. He is a man of God, no doubt about it. So it was nice to be edified from him on Saturday and Sunday.
And since it was stake conference, I fasted with the mission last Sunday. But I got to fast this past Sunday with my family. So that was nice, and a very spiritual fast for me.
Monday. Thunderstorm Monday. It was AWESOME! I love the rain and I love thunder storms!!! We got to street contact an old woman who then took us on a tour of her Ohio State house, she's quite the fan, not interested, but still quite a fan. We then had a senior luncheon with the old sisters in our stake. We got a potential investigator out of it!
Actually one of our members brought a friend, she lives in Lakeside so we will have to pass her off but we got an appointment with her so that was awesome!
We then had a zone meeting. And the fun part of being a missionary, we got a sneak peek of the new Easter initiative video, "Hallelujah." I love being a missionary and I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I can't wait for all of you to see the video!!!
President came to our meeting as well, so that always keeps us on our toes. He's a good man. :) We then had an AMAZING lesson with our favorite 77 year old investigator Gail!!!! She's so cool! She wasn't able to read The Book of Mormon because she can't see. So we showed her how to listen to it and we listened to a couple of verses with her. Afterwards she just felt so peaceful and she wants to listen to it when she goes to bed! She's so cool!
We started talking about The Plan of Salvation. During it she talked about how she really appreciated us coming over, how we have helped her get out of depression and the last time we left she was singing and dancing in the kitchen! (Can you picture that? ;))
She started crying, she totally felt the spirit, she makes me happy. I love her.
We also had power hour and started it off by knocking on a member's door to get them to say a prayer with us so we could find someone and then we would report to them that night to tell them what happened. To get them fired up on missionary work. So we did that, and no one was really out, and the people that we talked to were not interested. So we started knocking on doors. Very not interested. But we handed out a couple of cards. But the miracle really came not at our power hour, but it really was. It was right near our complex and we just followed the spirit and we were able to find so many potentials and set up so many return appointments! IT WAS AWESOME!!!
God is good.
We also had a family home evening with a family that was filled missionary work! I love it! I love it all. And I love you all!
You all motivate me so dearly and just remember that I'm here cheering you on as well!

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love,

Sister Whitcomb